Paul Stehlin

Paul Stehlin was chief of staff of the French air force before becoming a member of the national assembly.

In 1974 he was forced to resign as vice-president of the assembly after it was revealed that he was arguing that the French Mirage aircraft was inferior to its US rivals.

In June 1975 General Stehlin walked out of his office near the Paris Opera after receiving a traumatic phone call from the Associated Press agency. In Washington, Senator Frank Church had just announced that Stehlin had been in the pay of Northrop, a Los Angeles planemaker. Two weeks later Paul Stehlin was dead.

Church published the general's incriminating correspondence. "The documents lay out in excruciating detail a sordid tale of bribery," Church said. The story involved, he added, "a cast of characters out of a tale of international intrigue".